If you planted giant common sunflower (Helianthus annuus) seeds in late April in Pittsburgh, they are probably(*) blooming now but the stalks have not reached full size.
Watch this time lapse video of sunflowers growing from seed to giants in 103 days. It takes them so long that it’s September before they’re done.
(*) p.s. It’s been a weird weather spring this year in Pittsburgh. Temperatures and precipitation were near normal in May except for a notable dip to 39°F on the 10th. However, April and June were both and 3+ degrees F above normal with 3 additional inches of precipitation. If your garden is not doing well it’s totally understandable.
Chickory with an insect at “2 o’clock”, Schenley Park, 22 June 2025 (photo by Kate St. John)
28 June 2025
This week was so hot that I barely went outside.
On 22 June the temperature was still pleasant before 10am when I lead an outing in Schenley Park. There were just two of us to see …
Chicory with an insect flying in (at 2 o’clock on flower face).
Fleabane with a lady beetle.
Duckweed in Panther Hollow lake.
Fleabane with a lady beetle, Schenley Park, 22 June 2025 (photo by Kate St. John)Duckweed from Panther Hollow lake, Schenley Park, 22 June 2025 (photo by Kate St. John)
We visited my mother in Virginia Beach this week. On Thursday I went to look at the water and only stayed half an hour. It was SO HOT!!
At was high tide on the bayside beach at First Landing State Park the news said the air was over 94° and the water 80°. Few people were out.
High tide at the bayside, First Landing State Park, Virginia Beach, 26 June 2025 (photo by Kate St. John)
I found some crab tracks. And then I went back indoors.
Crab tracks on the bayside sand, First Landing State Park, Virginia Beach, 26 June 2025 (photo by Kate St. John)
Wild basil with insect visitor, Schenley Park, 15 June 2025 (photo by Kate St. John)
22 June 2025
This week I saw flowers, fruiting fungi, and insects in Schenley and Frick Parks. The flowers are urban pioneers, the fungi are native, and the insects are mostly mysteries. Here’s the story in photos:
Urban pioneer plants: When in doubt I used the Picture This app to identify them.
Oak bracket fungus a.k.a. weeping polypore (Inonotus dryadeus) growing at the base of an oak on Circuit Drive
Insects:
Spotted lanternfly nymphs on Devil’s walking stick/Japanese aralia
Galls on shagbark hickory leaves. This tree was infested in Frick Park.
Spittlebugs on wingstem in Frick Park.
Common nipplewort, Frick Park, 18 June 2025 (photo by Kate St. John)Galinsoga, Schenley Park, 15 June 2025 (photo by Kate St. John)Flowers of oriental bittersweet, Schenley Park, 15 June 2025 (photo by Kate St. John)Oriental lady’s thumb, Schenley Park, 15 June 2025 (photo by Kate St. John)Google Lens says this is Blushing amanita (Amanita rubescens), Schenley Park, 15 June 2025 (photo by Kate St. John)Oak bracket fungus or weeping polypore, at base of oak in Schenley Park, 15 June 2025 (photo by Kate St. John)Spotted lanternfly nymphs on Japanese aralia, Schenley Park, 15 June 2025 (photo by Kate St. John)Shagbark hickory leaf galls, an infested tree in Frick Park, 18 June 2025 (photo by Kate St. John)Spittlebugs on wingstem, Frick Park, 18 June 2025 (photo by Kate St. John)
In addition to birds and flowers, this walk it will introduce a new way of looking at the mix of species found in the park, especially at Schenley’s Panther Hollow Lake. The insights come from a new-to-me field guide: Wild Urban Plants of the Northeast, by Peter Del Tredici, second edition and include the radical idea that the plants we see in the urban landscape are a new and beneficial ecosystem. For example, they are performing an immense amount of “free work” including converting CO2 to oxygen, creating topsoil, holding topsoil against flooding and providing food for insects, birds and animals.
Dress for the weather and wear comfortable walking shoes. It will be HOT so don’t forget a sun hat + water. Bring binoculars and field guides if you have them.
Before you come, visit the Events page in case of changes or cancellations.
Foxglove beardtongue at Aspinwall Riverfront Park, 12 June 2025 (photo by Kate St. John)
14 June 2025
It was a good week for flowers and insects though some of the species are unwelcome.
In Schenley Park, three plants that do well in poor or disturbed soil were in full bloom.
The single flowers of mouse-ear hawkweed (Pilosella officinarum) brightened the top of the tufa bridge at Bartlett.
Mouse-eared hawkweed, Schenley Park, 13 June 2025 (photo by Kate St. John)
In April a DPW backhoe scraped the north side of Panther Hollow Lake in Schenley Park and produced lots of disturbed soil. Soon the area was covered in plants that love this habitat including:
Black medick or hop clover (Medicago lupulina) was brought to North America as forage for livestock and escaped into the urban wild.
Black medick a.k.a. hop clover, Schenley Park, 13 June 2025 (photo by Kate St. John)
English plantain, also known as ribwort plantain (Plantago lanceolata), was brought from Europe to North America for its medicinal use.
Ribwort plantain a.k.a. English plantain, Schenley Park, 13 June 2025 (photo by Kate St. John)
On Thursday I visited Aspinwall Riverfront Park which now has two names — at least in my head. In 2021 it was renamed “Allegheny River Trail Park” but signs at the entrance did not change until fairly recently. The eBird hotspot is still called Aspinwall Riverfront Park.
The meadow by the river is filled with foxglove beardtongue, shown at top. St. Johnswort is attracting bees along the bike trail.
Bumblebee on St. Johnswort, Allegheny River Trail at Aspinwall, 12 June 2025 (photo by Kate St. John)
Speaking of insects, I saw little black and white ones running on a retaining wall behind the Carnegie Museum of Natural History on Tuesday. Uh oh!
Spotted lanternfly nymphs behind Carnegie Museum of Natural History, 10 June 2025 (photo by Kate St. John)
I should not have been surprised to see spotted lanternfly nymphs (Lycorma delicatula), but I was.
Spotted lanternfly nymph behind Carnegie Museum of Natural History, 10 June 2025 (photo by Kate St. John)
If you want to see a spotted lanternfly, visit one of these infested counties. Welcome to [most of] Pennsylvania.
Western goatsbeard (Tragopogon dubius) at SGL 117, 1 June 2025 (photo by Kate St. John)
9 June 2025
While this blog has been All Peregrines All The Time for the past couple of weeks, I’ve neglected flowers and phenology. Today I’m catching up with a few June blooms.
On a visit to State Game Lands 117 (SGL 117) on 1 June we saw many flowers blooming by the gravel road. The most striking was a biennial Eurasian plant called western goatsbeard or yellow salsify (Tragopogon dubius). A related species in the U.K., Tragopogon pratensis, is nicknamed Jack-go-to-bed-at-noon because it opens in the morning and closes by late afternoon. So does this one.
Western goatsbeard (Tragopogon dubius) at SGL 117, 1 June 2025 (photo by Kate St. John)
This deep blue flower, Virginia spiderwort (Tradescantia virginiana), has a long blooming season. I saw it at Frick Park on 19 May and yesterday at Schenley.
Virginia spiderwort, Frick and Schenley, 19 May & 8 June 2025 (photo by Kate St. John)
Common nipplewort (Lapsana communis) is a Eurasian member of the aster family that’s become naturalized in North America. Its flowers look like hawkweed but not its leaves.
Common nipplewort, Frick Park, 7 June 2025 (photo by Kate St. John)
Also seen at SGL 117 on 1 June, a sometimes invasive plant called bird’s-foot trefoil (Lotus corniculatus) or “eggs and bacon.” The first name describes its leaves, the second name its flowers.
Bird’s-foot trefoil, SGL 117, 1 June 2025 (photo by Kate St. John)
Topping off the invasive plants in Schenley Park is this Eurasian plant, goutweed (Aegopodium podagraria) or ground elder. It was blooming yesterday in heavy rain.
Goutweed in bloom, Schenley, 8 June 2025 (photo by Kate St. John)
Woody vine embraces a tree branch, Raccoon Wildflower Reserve, 26 May 2025 (photo by Kate St. John)
2 June 2025
Animals embrace and release but when plants wrap around each other the result is often permanent. Sometimes an embrace is intentional, sometimes not.
Intentional
Almost like a snake, the woody vine pictured at top intentionally wrapped itself around a tree branch. But then it stopped growing and left the two locked in a vegetative embrace.
Dodder (Cuscata), pictured below, is a parasitic native annual in the morning glory (Convolvulaceae) family that intentionally wraps itself closely around a plant stem. It then inserts very tiny feelers between the cells and sucks nutrients from its host. As an annual, it starts growing from seed but loses its soil-based roots when it has found a really good host.
Dodder more-than-embracing another plant, June 2017 (photo by Kate St. John)
Porcelain berry (Ampelopsis glandulosa) and grapevine intentionally drape themselves on trees and shrubs to lift themselves above the canopy. When this vine fell it embraced the oak.
Fallen vine embraces the oak it fell from, Moraine State Park, October 2022 (photo by Kate St. John)
Some plants have leaves that clasp the stem, circled in pink below. Botanists: Can you tell me the name of this plant? I forgot to note it when I took the photo at Raccoon Wildflower Reserve.
Alternate leaves clasp the stem, Raccoon Wildflower Reserve, 26 May 2025 (photo by Kate St. John)
Unplanned, Inadvertent
There are also inadvertent vegetative embraces, some of which are temporary.
Two trunks of the same species grew so close together that they fused at the base in this permanent embrace.
Two trees growing in a close embrace, January 2010 (photo by Kate St. John)
When this skunk cabbage put up shoots in the spring, one of them speared a dead leaf whose ribs now prevent the skunk cabbage from opening. Temporary embrace? I like to rescue these plants, especially mayapple and trillium, by pulling off the dead leaf. I can’t remember if I rescued this one.
Dead leaf, speared by an emerging skunk cabbage leaf, prevents it from unfurling, April 2025 (photo by Kate St. John)
Fringetree in bloom, Schenley Park, 14 May 2025 (photo by Kate St. John)
17 May 2025
This week I went birding in three western Pennsylvania parks: Schenley Park in Pittsburgh, Moraine State Park in Butler County (halfway north) and Presque Isle State Park on the northern edge of PA. While there I noticed how plants showed the progress of spring from south to north.
Schenley Park has been at Full Leaf since 5 May so it’s hard to see the birds there. In the understory white fringetree (Chionanthus virginicus) hsa just gone past its blooming peak. Two “weedy” plants caught my attention, identified in the PictureThis app as slender woodsorrel (Oxalis dillenii a native species) and mouse ear chickweed (Cerastium fontanum) introduced from Europe.
Slender woodsorrel, Schenley Park, 14 May 2025 (photo by Kate St. John)Mouse ear chickweed, Schenley Park, 14 May 2025 (photo by Kate St. John)
For comparison, PictureThis identified this one found at Presque Isle as sticky mouse-ear chickweed (Cerastium glomeratum), also European.
Sticky chickweed, Presque Isle State Park, 15 May 2025 (photo by Kate St. John)
Though Schenley Park had already been at Full Leaf for six days on 11 May, oak leaves were just coming out at Moraine State Park.
New oak leaves, Moraine State Park, 11 May 2025 (photo by Kate St. John)
I found poison ivy (Toxicodendron rydbergii) leaves in all three parks. At Presque Isle the leaves were smaller and newer but still able to cause an itch. Poison ivy is getting big in Schenley Park on 14 May. Watch out!
Poison Ivy in Schenley Park, 14 May 2025 (photo by Kate St. John)
One week after Full Leaf, I saw this year’s first yellow poplar weevil* (Odontopus calceatus) clinging to my window. They usually swarm in June but last week was unusually hot.
Outside my window: First billbug of the year, 12 May 2025 (photo by Kate St. John)
(* Despite knowing better I can’t help but call these insects “billbugs” even though I know the name is wrong. Oy!)
I did not take this photo of a black-throated blue warbler (it’s from Wikimedia) but this gives you an idea of how close the warblers were at Magee Marsh Boardwalk on Thursday evening 8 May. I drove home yesterday before The Biggest Week in American Birding got fully underway, but I can tell you that attendees will have great looks at beautiful birds on the Boardwalk this coming week.
Meanwhile I saw a few other things last week including this rain-touched golden ragwort at Brush Creek in Beaver County, PA.
Golden ragwort, Brush Creek Park, Beaver County, 4 May 2025 (photo by Kate St. John)
At Pearson Metropark, Toledo on 8 May: Wild geranium, jack-in-the-pulpit and starry false Solomon’s seal.
Wild geranium, Pearson Metropark, 8 May 2025 (photo by Kate St. John)Jack in the pulpit, Pearson Metropark, 8 May 2025 (photo by Kate St. John)Starry false Solomon’s seal, Pearson Metropark, 8 May 2025 (photo by Kate St. John)
The sky was cool at the end of the day.
Sunset at Maumee Bay Lodge, 8 May 2025 (photo by Kate St. John)
And in Jeff Cieslak tradition, I’ll show you that my car reached a milestone on 8 May 2025. My Prius is 15 years old.
155,000 miles on the Prius odometer and still going strong, 8 May 2025 (photo by Kate St. John)
Blue violets, 28 April 2025 (photo by Kate St. John)
3 May 2025
On Monday and before 5pm on Tuesday, spring was proceeding as normal though warm in Pittsburgh. I took photos of flowers and trees and leaves.
Blue violets
Pawpaw flowers and the beginnings of leaves
Red maple leaves and samaras.
Pawpaw flower, 2 May 2025 (photo by Kate St. John)Red maple leaves and samaras, 28 April 2025 (photo by Kate St. John)
Then on Tuesday just after 5:00pm a line storm with 71+ mph straight-line winds hit Pittsburgh and wiped out trees and power lines. Many trees were simply snapped off as those shown below in Schenley Park yesterday.
Who knew this oak was hollow? The wind took it apart on 29 April 2025, Schenley Park (photo by Kate St. John)Hemlock tree snapped off near Schenley Park Visitors’ Center on 29 April 2025 (photo by Kate St. John)
Pittsburgh Public Works started sawing their way into the park. The top of the hemlock was one of the first to cut as it was blocking the access road.
Top of the hemlock tree, cut by Public Works, Schenley Park, 2 May 2025 (photo by Kate St. John)
For an update on the damage, see this 24-minute video from CBS Pittsburgh. 24 minutes is a LONG time to watch so feel free to stop viewing at any time. The first 3 minutes give you the flavor of what it’s like. And as a for instance, three friends still don’t have power.
